Budget Planner Dashboard

The Dashboard is the first page of Budget Planner. It always shows your month (the current month) and puts the things that need action at the top. Everything on it is a summary of data from the other pages, so every number has a link that opens the page with the details.

What you'll learn

• What each section of the dashboard means
• How the This month card calculates Left to spend and Per day
• How to hide, show and reset sections with Customise

Header

• Refresh — reloads the numbers. The text next to it shows when the data was last updated.
• Customise — opens the section list (see below).
• Payment calendar (link on the right of the month name) — opens the Calendar page for all of this month's payments.

Month summary

Three totals sit under the month name. Each has an arrow that opens the related page.

• Income — money that came in this month.
• Spent — money that went out this month. Savings transfers are not counted as spending.
• Saved — money you moved into savings.

Needs your attention

These cards appear only when there is something to act on:

• Overdue payments (for example, "514 payments overdue ($3,811.00)") — scheduled payments whose due date has passed and that are still unpaid, with their total.
• Upcoming payments (for example, "10 payments due in the next 7 days ($1,113.00)") — payments due in the next 7 days, with their total.
• Spending is over this month's plan — shown with the amount over the budget, when spending is more than the budget you set.
• You have spent more than you earned this month — shown with the deficit amount, when the month is in deficit.
• Set this month's budget to see where you stand — shown when no budget exists for the month.

Select a card to open the page where you can act on it. When nothing needs attention, the section says Nothing needs your attention right now.

Payments

A tab row splits the scheduled payments into Overdue, Due today and Upcoming, each with a count. The total scheduled amount is shown on the right; the arrow opens the Payments page. Select a tab to see its list (up to five entries). View all opens the complete list.

This month card

• Left to spend — the amount still available this month.
• Days left — days remaining in the month.
• Per day — what you can spend each day to stay on track: Left to spend divided by Days left. It shows $0.00 when nothing is left to spend.
• Month gone — how much of the month has passed.
• Budget used — how much of this month's budget you have used.

A line under the bars says whether spending is on pace ("Spending is on pace for this month.") or ahead of the month ("Spending is ahead of the month. Slow down a little."). Compare Budget used with Month gone: if Budget used is further along than Month gone, you are spending faster than the month passes.

This month vs. plan

Compares what you have received, spent and saved with what you planned for the month. The rows are Income received, Budget used, Savings made and Savings goals, each with a percentage and a bar.

Year so far and Budget

• Year so far — total saved this year, with the Savings rate and a monthly bar strip. Each bar is one month: blue when you earned more than you spent, red when you spent more than you earned. The legend under the strip explains the colours. Income and Spent for the year are shown below it.
• Budget — the Spent amount for the month, shown with a ring, and three lines: Planned, Remaining and Account total.

Account balances

Every account with its current balance and the total. For the details, see Bank Accounts.

Analysis and Planning (expandable)

Below the main sections are two collapsible panels, Analysis and Planning. Select a panel's title to open or close it; both open by default. The panels load their extra data only when they are open. If that data cannot be loaded, the panel shows a short message instead.

Analysis contains these sections:

• Income and spending by month — a bar chart of income and spending for each month, with the best month.
• Where your money goes — each category's share of spending. Links to the 50/30/20 Analysis page.
• 50/30/20 this month — how this month's income is split between needs, wants and savings and debt, against the 50, 30 and 20 percent targets.
• Spending by type this year — planned against actual spending for each type.
• Who spends — household spending by person.

Planning contains these sections:

• Savings goals — your sinking funds with the amount still to go and the target date.
• Net worth — assets, liabilities and the trend over time.
• Debt payoff — balance, minimum payments and interest still to pay for your debts.
• Investments — the projected value of your investments.
• Fixed costs this month — bills, debts and subscriptions for the month.
• No-spend days — your no-spend days this month against your monthly goal.
• Wedding spending — the wedding budget used against what is paid. It links to the Wedding Planner budget.

Most sections link to the page they summarise, and each page is explained in its own article. In Customise, Analysis and Planning hide the whole panel, and Wedding spending hides only that section.

Customise the dashboard

1. Select Customise in the header.
2. In Customise dashboard, turn sections on or off. The ten sections are: Month summary, Needs your attention, Payments, Left to spend and pace, This month vs. plan, Year so far and budget, Account balances, Analysis, Planning and Wedding spending.
3. To return to the default layout, select Reset to default.

Your choices are saved in the browser you are using. They are not synced to other devices.